The Case for Women leading in the military By Lindsey Sin, CalVet Deputy Secretary for Communications The tradition of women serving in the U.S. Armed Forces is woven into the storied history of this nation. From the country’s founding, through various wars and conflicts to modern times, women steadfastly answered the call to serve, with increased participation in new roles - whenever and wherever possible. Women have always exceeded the expectations of their military service; they now serve in more roles and in higher numbers than at any point in our history. In the next decade, we should expect to have the first woman Secretary of Defense, Chairwoman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and woman Secretary of the VA; three barriers women have yet to break through. History makes a clear case for the military skills and abilities of women; today, you don’t have to look far to find a woman who is breaking barriers in military service. Women have exceeded expectations throughout our nation’s military and wartime history Even though they served in auxiliary roles throughout most of the nation’s existence, women proved their courage and capability in a wide range of roles during wartime, including serving as cooks, code breakers, couriers, nurses, and spies. According to the Military Women’s Memorial, women providing medical care and triage of wounded troops in the Spanish-American War was so highly valued that it led to the establishment of the Army Nurse Corps in 1901 and the Navy Nurse Corps in 1908.
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Further proof is evident in the long list of intrepid women who contributed to military intelligence and spy craft by leveraging their traditional roles as non-threatening housewives, mothers, and sisters. In addition to battling foreign and domestic enemies, women fought against gender barriers that led to their eventual recognition and right to operate as independent people with skills necessary to win wars. Women such as Underground Railroad conductor and escaped slave Harriet Tubman, who spied for the Union Army; or famous entertainer Hedy Lamar, whose World War II era invention became the foundation for classified communications equipment and cellular phone technology; or the “Hello Girls” who marked the first time in warfare history that commanders on the frontline could communicate directly to the general command. By the end of World War II, women proved indispensable to the war effort The Women’s Armed Services Integration Act, passed in 1948, officially established women as part of the U.S. military and entitled them to veterans’ benefits, but heavily restricted their participation by capping the total percentage of who could serve, restricting the rank they could achieve and the jobs they could perform. In the decades that followed, women took every opportunity to enlist or commission into the armed forces, all while experiencing genderspecific restrictions on their promotions and job opportunities. During the first Gulf War, women again demonstrated their abilities during wartime, including as helicopter pilots.
